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Friday, April 15, 2011

It's all in the detail

There hasn't been much going on in the last few days, I imagine because EB are now waiting for the approval from the Council Inspector before proceeding with the gyprock.

It's worked out quite well because instead of going into the house for a look and being WOWED with heaps of progress and only seeing the big picture, I've been able to cast a more critical eye over things and pick up anything that needs to be addressed with the SS.

So, in keeping it real - highs and the lows remember? Here's what I picked up today...

Ok, so what's with the 2 tone mortar? The middle section of this pillar looks like it's still wet but it was completed over 6 days ago...

And talking about 2 tone, the back of the house (top section) is also more of a standard mortar colour instead of off-white. Looks like it's in a shadow but it's not.

Little tricky to see but there's a crack zig-zagging down the mortar at the bottom of the pillar. Surely not meant to be cracking yet?

I believe this is an expansion joint - however I could see through it??

This is the other side of the expansion joint. Bit hard to see but surely you're not meant to see daylight through it? What's to stop moisture getting in and mould forming on the internal walls?

Noticed big gaps (approx. 10cm) above the laundry door and French Doors on Playroom. Don't know if it's meant to be like this for a reason but wouldn't the door sit in the door jam? Maybe they put some kind of cladding around it?

Cracked tile

Lifting tile

Brickwork at the base of our bifolds. One side is neat and lines up with woodwork. The other side, as you can see has gaps and doesn't line up at all??

Here's the big gaping, not so straight brickwork! What's the go? All other brickwork is great!

Some of the fluffy stuff (yep, technical term) coming out of bifold door frame...

And while I'm documenting everything, I also noticed there are no powerpoint plates set up in any of the bathrooms (which makes me think this has been done for a reason - perhaps waiting till vanities are in to get heights right) and the 2 powerpoints in our main bedroom are not there.

So there you go... nothing I'm losing sleep over but hope to get sorted soon. Especially the weirdo brickwork around bifolds and the roof tiles.

8 comments:

Good on you for keeping an ongoing record of these things - make sure you bring up everything and make them address it all! If it helps, our expansion joints are filled with coloured araldite stuff that was done later and then we also had different mortar colours and we were told that it takes much longer than a week to really set and turn to the same colour. Ours eventually did but it took quite a while.

Thanks Gayle! Great to know expansion joints are filled later and about the mortar too. What I don't understand though, is on the pillar for example the top is back to the off white mortar - it's only the middle section which doesn't look right and that part would have been bricked before top section.

Might meet up with SS to go over things and then email him as evidence of our meeting.

As for the explansion joints, I didn't know they filled them later..great to know cos i was also worried about that too!

In regards to the gap between your doors, we had the exact same thing. What they do is they cover the gap with gyprock..which reminds me..I must check now to see that the doors have been covered completely..apparently its very hard to cover the whole frame with bricks..thats what our SS had told us so thats why they cover it with gyprock later..

Hi Karla, we had a few cracked and lifting tiles too, but they were all picked up (by me) and the SS had them all fixed. With our builder they did a final roof inspection towards the end of the build and would have picked up all of that anyway. They waited until near completeion, as there were still tradies on the roof (installing solar panels, cooling etc), and more accidental damage can occur.

A few of our external doors had the small gap above them too, but they were filled with cement sheet (same material as used in eaves), and then painted the same colour as the door. Honestly cannot notice it at all. Yep, all your AJ's will be filled with a coloured putty/silicone stuff to blend with the colour of your bricks.

I can't explain the gap between the bifolds and the line of bricks, though. Our bricks sat under the edge of our alfresco stacker door which (I think) helped to support the door frame. Best to mention it to your SS.

Welcome

We've just built our first home and are loving it! It's so great looking around and knowing that we chose absolutely everything around us. This blog documents our positive experience building with Eden Brae as well as some of the challenges we faced along the way. Now we are up to the really fun bit that is decorating and setting up our new home.